Consider this: If the private investors take their ball and go home and Woodward Light Rail fails, then Detroit can be reasonably considered less capable of urban redevelopment than Salt Lake City.

It’s not that light rail on Woodward is some magic bullet project, but if Detroit can’t do this—the most modest and obvious of urban transit projects—then there’s no reason to believe Detroit can ever muster the comeback necessary make this place a “world class city,” at least not in a sustainable macroscopic way. At that point there’s no reason for talented, ambitious young people to waste their time trying to make Detroit a better place.